Ohki Alley in Columbia City, Indiana

Ohki Alley in Columbia City, Indiana

Though soy sauce is ubiquitous today, it was not always a feature of American palates. By some accounts, the very first person to begin processing Midwestern soy crops into the delicious fermented condiment at an industrial scale started it all in a small corner of Columbia City.  Shinzo Ohki was born in Japan, but after a circuitous and storied path from Kamakura to Seattle to Sitka, he set roots down in Whitley County, IN; he first appears in …